As you all know Do Be have been selected to take part in ‘Innovation Alley’ at this years Education Show in Birmingham.
There’s only 21 days left until Do Be hit Birmingham. It’s all very exciting at Do Be HQ. We are just about to unveil our new logo and launch into England at the same time.
You can find us at stand Q7OJ. If you are attending please come along to visit us. We would love to see you.
We are also running a competition involving the Nintendo DS games consoles. This is your chance to play with one of these systems and use your gaming skills to win a Teach-It by achieving the fastest times, highest scores and youngest brain age! Each day we will be giving away a Teach-It to one lucky winner for use within the school of your choice. In the words of Dale Winton ‘You have to be in it to win it’ so get over to Q7O7 and take up this years Do Be DS challenge.
It’s confirmed…Louise will be speaking at the Learning@School conference in Rotorua, New Zealand on 24th and 25th February!
We have been invited to speak about 21st Century Learning and how we approach the use of technology in the classrooms of Britain.
There are a great many people who have been involved in professional development programmes throughout New Zealand in the past few years. The Learning@School conference provides a wonderful opportunity for practitioners to share what has been happening for them as well as an opportunity for the international education community to take part too.
The Ministry of Education sponsors this annual Information and Communication Technologies Professional Development (ICTPD) conference at the Energy Events Centre in Rotorua, to be held from 23-26 February 2010. There will be a powhiri and a special reception for all of our conference presenters on 23rd February.
Aptly named ‘Embedding New Technologies across the National Curriculum‘ Louise’s presentation will promote what we call ‘Eduvation‘, combining Education with Innovation, Inspiration and Application.
Course Aims Include:
- Explore a variety of ICT technologies and apply them in a classroom context
- To develop lesson ideas using ICT to engage learners
- Experience ‘Eduvation’ through the eyes of the learner
- Practice and apply Games-Based-Learning, Social Media and ICT to the curriculum
Technologies explored:
- Google Earth
- Digital Media
- MP3/MP4
- Games Platforms – Guitar Hero/Nintendo DS/Nintendo Wii
I recently had the pleasure of working with teachers in the Borough of Havering, London. The 7 schools that attended were given Teach-It packs and virtual access by their very kind LEA www.haveringict.edublogs.org.
HUGE thanks and many hugs to Dave Smith@haveringict who is leading the project and Naree Salee who organised practically everything to help the day run smoothly :0)
I was delighted at how enthusiastic and motivated staff were and I’m really excited about working with them to link Teach-It to the National Curriculum. Here is what I covered over the half day that we worked together: Teach IT Havering (PDF)
Dave Smith sent us an email afterwards simply saying ‘Great product, great delivery, great company’.
Some teachers have been in touch since with information on how they are using the Teach-It so far:
Ann Penn has used Wordle in class to create a simple but effective display using the children’s suggestions for connectives which they thought was ‘cool’ while Jenny has used PicNik – linking it to her literacy lessons with work on creative writing – landscapes. ‘It was very effective‘ she said ‘and very simple‘, ‘but most importantly the children loved it’.
Since our training some teachers have asked for advice on helping pupils to use the internet responsibly as some sites in Teach-It require teachers to lead lessons more than others. We have decided to produce this information and put it on the virtual version of the pack. So Havering staff please bear with us and we’ll have this to you asap.We look forward to working with Havering in the future and watching the legacy of the Teach-It unfold.
Here is some video footage of one of the teachers rockin’ with Guitar Hero!:
I had a great time down in London on Friday. My first presentation was at Redbridge Teacher Centre in Ilford. The teachers I met in Redbridge were doing some amazing stuff using technology to engage and enhance learning.
Anthony Evans(amazing guy) or follow him on Twitter@skinnyboyevansorganised the day so BIG thank you Anthony. You can check out Anthony’s blogpost on my presentation.
Feedback from teachers onTeach-Itwas really positive even though most of them were into ICT in a big way. Wordle, Picnikand of-course Google Earthwere some of the favourite applications.
I also had the pleasure of meeting Del Singhfrom Woodlands Primary in Redbridge. Del has introducedTeach-Itto all staff in his school to enrich the teaching of their ICT scheme. Del described how he gave the pupils a photocopy of the skills they were learning which included steps on how to meet the learning objective. He said that pupils worked at their own pace to complete the activity in the Digital Image Section (Idea 2). Pupils then applied their new skills of saving images from sites such asGoogle,Flickrand DeviantArtinto a PowerPoint presentations on their topic this term – Ancient Egypt.
Here is just one of a huge number of positive quotes from Del’s students:
‘The only place I knew I could search for images was Google Images….now I know about flikr and deviantart’ – Yr 5 pupil
Here is an example of the staff feedback:
‘A good resource that also get pupils reading and following instructions’ – Caroline Jones
‘All in all I think this is an innovative resource that supports pupils learning of current technologies’ – Del Singh
Here is an example of the feedback sent so far on how the pilot is going:
It’s been a busy start for Stephen and I this week. We were invited by David Innes (Enterprise Officer Aberdeenshire Council) to exhibit at the Aberdeenshire Learning Festival #alf09. We had a great time and the food was gorgeous. I particularly liked the Aberdeen Angus beef stew.
Jamie Andrew was one of the main speakers at the conference. He survived for five days perched precariously on an icy ledge at the summit of an alpine mountain while winds raged to 130 km per hour, and temperatures plummeted to minus 30 degrees Celsius. Jamie survived the ordeal, but at great personal cost. Ten days later his hands and his feet, damaged by frostbite, were amputated. Amazingly, only three months later, Jamie emerged from hospital, walking on prosthetic legs.
Since then Jamie has defied all expectations by running the London Marathon, returning to climbing using his own design of prosthetic ice axe, climbing Ben Nevis, revisiting the Alps, reaching the roof of Africa, and learning to ski, snowboard, sail and paraglide, raising tens of thousands of pounds for charity in the process. His humble and unassuming manner, coupled with a positive attitude towards life and its challenges make Jamie an extraordinary example of bravery and determination. He now does lots of work in schools telling his inspirational story to others. Jamie has also written an award winning first book, “Life and Limb”, it tells the tale of his remarkable story. He is a truly amazing human being and it was fantastic to hear his story.
We work with many Aberdeenshire schools using our Do Be Learn-It MP4’s. It was great to meet teachers running their own unique projects and enhancing learning and teaching using our technology.
Not only did we meet fantastic teachers we also met some fantastic companies. Juliet from Creative Star caught my attention. She specialises in the delivery of creative workshops and resources to motivate people to get children learning outside. Check her website out www.creativestarlearning.co.uk
The teachers were blown away by Teach-It and the lesson ideas it offers. I found Aberdeenshire teachers to be very forward thinking. Some teachers explained they weren’t very confident using ICT in the classroom but what I loved was there was still a willingness to learn to engage their pupils in this way. Teachers are aware that education and the way pupils want to learn is changing and they need to be getting creative and innovative in their classrooms.
I am sure Teach-It will be landing in Aberdeenshire very soon.
Heading out to annual Scottish Leaders Conference tomorrow and Friday. Looking forward to sitting in on Dr Carol Craigs key note on confidence and wellbeing. I’ll keep you posted!
Since the launch of our Teach-It and due to it’s huge success throughout a vast number of UK schools so far, we’ve been busy working on the Teach-It 2.
Filling the pages of my, already packed ‘Technovation Journal’ with fresh experiences, experiments, tutorials, hints, tips and tricks from an unending stream of the latest web 2 applications, I stumbled upon Prezi.
This incredible little tool, used for the purposes of making presentations, easily outstrips both Powerpoint and Keynote as an impressive and easy-to-use presentation app.
Being web based there is no need to install anything on computers or servers giving you permanent access to your presentations for both editing and showcasing and (in it’s basic form) it’s also free meaning you can enjoy this highly adaptable tool in the classroom without impacting on your budget.
I’m now developing a series of Prezi Lesson Ideas focussing on literacy, numeracy, science and expressive arts so watch this space!
In the meantime, here is a ‘Prezi‘ I made for you to watch. Enjoy and let me know what you think?
You will require the latest version of Flash to play this…get it here!
Glasgow saw it’s first glimpse of the newTeach-Itthis week as Stephen launched to classroom resource in John Paul Academy.
JPA are leading the way inTechnovation, 21st Century TeachingandCPDas staff have been given the resource as part of their personal and professional development as well as their active classroom resources this year.
The project, led by Technical teacher and ICT enthusiastFrank Bannon(Twitter – MrBTec) is designed to help staff develop their knowledge and practical application of the technologies pupils are using every day. The Teach-It will help all staff to learn how to use 5 key technologies for use in the classroom as part of the new curriculum throughout the year.
The launch, carried out as a twilight session was a huge success with a full turnout of staff including P.E teacher Charlie (who I met a few days later at a mutual friends wedding!). Staff were shown the Teach-It in both paper and online format and given time to discuss it’s use in each of their subjects.
As always we look forward to next years CPD training day – TheDo Be Use-Itin which the Teach-It will be used to it’s full potential by the staff at JPA, creating rich content for use in the classroom as well as for whole school projects, blogs and even GLOW.
Thanks to Head Teacher Vincent Docherty for his belief in the Teach-It and toFrank Bannon (Twitter – MrBTec) for his tireless efforts in setting this whole project up. The eyes of Glasgows education network are on you!
Lately I’ve been playing Touch Physics again…I blogged a while back about this great app and only recently rediscovered it’s childish yet scientific fascination.
A great little game for the scientist in you!
Touch Physics is a fantastic little game that allows the player to manipulate a given environment using the basic laws of Physics:
Motion Gravity Mass Force Energy
Combining Science with the most basic Art skills the aim of the game is to get your Ball to the Star and complete the level.
Throughout the full fifty levels your ball starts in any and every kind of scenario. It may be static, at the top or bottom of a hill, trapped in a box, on top of a triangle, inside another shape, on a see-saw and so many more. From here your job is to create shapes and actions that will allow your ball to travel around the screen and reach the star.
Solutions include building walls to protect the ball from falling off screen, constructing a see-saw on which a larger shape can be dropped sending your ball towards the star (if you’re lucky!), creating shapes that will push your ball out of a hole or off a ledge and creating slides and /or hills to navigate varying heights.
Using very attractive artwork that emulates crude chalk marks on backgrounds of crumpled paper, polystyrene and wood this will appeal immediately to your pupil’s as well as your own inner child while challenging the natural scientist in all of us.
You can download a Lite version of TouchPhysics for free in the App store for the first 5 levels. The full version has 50 levels with the promise of more to come.
Ideas for use:
• (Individual) Pupils tackle levels, working their way through the levels to the end.
• (Group) Pupils work in groups to tackle each level, taking shots in turn.
• (Group) Pupils complete each level then discuss each element of Physics involved.
• (Group) Pupils recreate levels using physical objects in class/school.
• (Class) Pupils tackle levels on paper first, planning their solution then attempting each in turn.
• (Class) Teacher tackles each level following Pupils instructions.
Ideas for application:
• Try projecting your iPhone to the White board using Honlai’s QingBar MP101 iPhone projector. • Use multiple iPhones for individual/group learning • Collatescreenshots from your iPhonethen project them to the White Board and invite pupils to solve the levels using the pens.
We hope you enjoy this iPhone app and find many ways to enrich the learning in the Physics classroom. To finish we’ve included a neat video of the game in action:
Felt really inspired this morning by the P6’s and P7’s at St Mary’s PS in North Lanarkshire. Stephen and I were working with them to explore the different ways that they could use mobile learning, specifically MP4 technology, to develop literacy, numeracy and much, much more. All I can say is that I was blown away by their creativity, confidence and enthusiasm. Believe me, they taught us a few things.
Here’s some pics of the training and I’ll update this post shortly with some audio feedback.
While writing the newTeach-Itresource for schools we’ve had a tremendous amount of pleasure in trying all the various applications we promote as learning tools in the classroom. Among them is Pixton, a free comic software that allows you to create astounding comic artwork in just a few simple steps.
Below is our own attempt to create something. This took just over half an hour and serves as an adveret for our services as well as a meet the team. Just think of the links to Literacy,Numeracy andThe Arts that can be found in a small piece of work like this…
and let me know what you think?
